The First National Bank in Alamogordo, New Mexico filed papers this month to foreclose on the Coulston Foundation. The Coulston Foundation is a biomedical firm that conducts research with non-human primates. It has been targeted for years by animal rights activists, and shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Animal Liberation Front Activists fire bombed a Coulston building causing an estimated $1 million in damage.
The First National Bank claims the foundation has an outstanding principal of more than $400,000 on a $1 million loan the foundation obtained in 1997, a mortgage dating back to 1989 which has been modified at least 5 times, and a $50,598 loan obtained in 1998. In addition the First National Bank claims Coulston has obtained other loans which remain unpaid.
The bank is claiming that Coulston has defaulted on its various loans and wants the court to appoint a special master to foreclose on the foundation and sell the property owned by the company to repay the loan.
In Defense of Animals was touting this as the final nail in the coffin for Coulston as a viable business, and so far representatives of the Coulston Foundation have been unwilling to talk about First National Bank’s filing.
Source:
Bank files for foreclosure of Coulston Foundation. Michael Shinabery, Alamogordo Daily News (New Mexico), January 7, 2002.